They are also asking the district to approve a charter petition
that would create a new school, Oxford Preparatory Academy
Oceanside, which the local district would oversee.

Organizers expect to serve an estimated 600 students in
kindergarten through eighth-grade beginning in fall 2012.

They have asked to use the former Pacific Elementary School
site, which the district has used in recent years as a temporary
location while other campuses are rebuilt.

However, charter organizers would prefer to take Ditmar
Elementary, which closed in 2008 and has served a similar purpose
since, said Jackie Howe, one of the parents working to bring the
charter school to Oceanside.

Having the school in town would provide parents with more
options, Howe said.

"It's all about our kids," she said.

Howe said she was happy with the local public schools, but was
dismayed when class sizes went up amid budget cuts a few years
ago.

The parents stood in front of schools, stores and at sporting
events, asking for people to sign the forms, which declare that
they would like to send their children to the charter school if it
opens. They collected 1,100 signatures in less than a week last
month, Howe said.

State law
requires school districts to provide furnished and
equipped classroom space to charter schools that can prove more
than 80 students in the district are interested in attending.

Oceanside Unified will hold a public hearing Tuesday to get
community input of the request to approve the charter and provide
classroom space. The meeting is scheduled to start at 6 p.m.
Tuesday at the district office, 2111 Mission Ave.

District officials were on break this week and unavailable for
comment.

The school board will have 30 days after the meeting to decide
whether to approve the charter.

The Oxford Preparatory Academy opened last year in Chino Hills.
A second campus opened in Mission Viejo this year.

The schools focus on teaching children with different learning
styles and requires strong parent involvement, Howe said.

"It's a different type of education," she said. "It's not for
everybody."

Unlike many charter schools that serve students who are mostly
home-schooled, they have typical five-day-a-week class
schedules.

Another charter school,
Diego Hills Charter School
, plans
to open next year for as many as 200 students in the building where
the School for Business and Technology once was.

That school, which is chartered through the
Dehesa School
District
, doesn't plan to ask Oceanside Unified to sponsor it
as a separate entity. Instead it will operate the school as a
satellite for its main campus in San Diego.